Perennial herbs, often with tuberous rootstock, erect or twining
Leaves radical or cauline, alternate, entire, toothed or divided, varying from broadly ovate to narrowly linear
Flowers variously arranged; bracts subulate to lanceolate, entire or divided, with 2 bracteoles variously situated on pedicels
Calyx shorter than corolla tube; segments linear-lanceolate to ovate, sometimes toothed or lobed
Corolla usually bilabiate, unequally 5-lobed, usually with 3 petals cohering and 2 free, rarely all free
Stamens free from petals; filaments free or sometimes connate into a hairy tube; anthers free or apically loosely united, oblong or lanceolate, usually hairy on back, rarely glabrous
Ovary partly inferior, with few to many ovules in each locule, dependent from apical placentas; style terete, sometimes stout, free or enclosed in staminal tube when present; stigma variable, usually somewhat club-shaped
Fruit an ellipsoid or globose capsule, ribbed and sometimes tubercled between ribs
Seeds discoid and winged or 3-angled, with reticulate testa
x = 9
Nomenclature:
Cyphia P.J.Bergius
Bergius: 172 (1767)
Phillips: 449 (1917)
Wimmer: 935 (1968)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species over 60, Africa
Southern Africa: Species ± 35, all regions, absent in Namibia, rare in Botswana
References:
BERGIUS, P.J. 1767. Cyphia. Descriptiones plantarum ex Capite Bonae Spei. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
PHILLIPS, E.P. 1917. A revision of the South African material of the genus Cyphia Berg. Annals of the South African Museum 9
WIMMER, F.E. 1968. Lobelioideae, Cyphioideae. Das Pflanzenreich Heft 108
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Welcome to Biodiversity Advisor 2.0!
Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
The integrated information comes from our much-loved Botanical Database of Southern Africa (BODATSA) also known as Plants of Southern Africa (POSA), Zoological Database of Southern Africa (ZODATSA), Biodiversity Geographic Information System (BGIS), SANBI's institutional repository (Opus) and others.
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